The new Flight Shed (David Nagle).
were moved in August – the BAC 1-11 is now by the Vanguard near the London Bus Museum, the VC10 fuselage, Victor Mike, is now where the BAC 1-11 used to be, by the Site Compound and Fire Test Building and Concorde has moved closer to the Brooklands Memorial and slightly changed orientation. These moves created enough space to enable two temporary buildings to be constructed – the first, next to Victor Mike in its new position, is a De Boer’s structure, which will be home to the Wellington bomber, ‘R for Robert’, until it can return to the restored and reconstructed Hangar and a second De Boer’s building has been constructed between the tail of Concorde and the Acoustics Chamber to house the Vickers Vimy. This is also a temporary build- ing until a cover can be erected over the Aircraft Park, which will incorporate a permanent home for the Vimy. Both the Wellington and the Vimy were successfully moved to their new homes on the 15th September by a team of volunteers and staff, the Wellington move in particular attracting attention from the press as it is some considerable
time since such an aeroplane has been seen in the open air.
There have also been some extensive excava- tions near the nose of the Sultan of Oman’s VC10 in the Aircraft Park in the last few weeks, with the construction of a large attenuation tank to store rainwater from the Flight Shed and relocated Hangar during heavy downpours to ensure that the rate of discharge of water into the river is not too great. Large green crates together with a liner have been buried and once the work is complete, a couple of drain covers are all that will be visible.
The restored Valiant cockpit is now on tempo-
rary display in the Stratosphere Chamber and the remaining artefacts, aircraft restoration materials and items from the Hangar that are not needed immediately for the new displays have been taken to the Museum store at Bicester Heritage. The final items were removed from the Hangar on 21st September and after the building had been carefully recorded, it was handed over to Brymor, whose first job was to remove the remaining fixtures and fittings, many of which are being re-
‘R for Robert’ emerges from the Wellington Hangar after 33 years (Adrian Balch).
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